Canadian Stanley Cup winner tough to come by

“Of course, when we did get to the finals and things were going really well, and then all the bad stuff with the riots and all that happened, you think: ‘Oooh. People really do take their hockey seriously here.’ ” — Kirk McLean, the Vancouver Canucks goaltender during the team’s run to the Stanley Cup final in 1994, to the National Post’s Sean Fitz-Gerald earlier this week.

The edge of the cliff always comes sooner or later, nationally speaking, and eventually everybody gets pushed, slips, or jumps. And every year around this time — usually later, but not every year — Canada ticks off another year without a Stanley Cup.

This is accounted as a national tragedy, when in fact it is six separate local ones. Still, last night the only two Canadian teams to reach the playoffs this season trembled on the precipice, both at home, separated by a few hours and several thousand kilometres. Each had lost three consecutive games to do so — Montreal after seizing a 2-0 lead over the Boston Bruins, Vancouver after building a 3-0 tower that was suddenly in danger of collapse. And the hand hovered over the calendar, ready to mark off another year.

This would be the 18th year without a Canadian franchise winning, as every schoolchild knows, and even then the Montreal Canadiens of 1993 had to win in the most tenuous manner possible — “What did they win, 10 overtimes in a row that year?” said Boston Bruins centre Chris Kelly, a good Canadian boy. Since then it has been close, or not, and certainly no cigars.

And every year, one and perhaps two fallacies are pulled from the closet, given a quick dusting, and propped up all across the country. One, the notion that all Canadian hockey fans should root for the last remaining member of the club, which is like asking the relatives of gang members killed in a six-gang war to root for the last gang standing.

Really, it is a mirror of Canada itself — we’re bound together by certain ideals, but we tend to have pretty distinct ideas of how to approach them. We are a nation divided in more than one way, and so when you are tempted to urge a sort of fandom brotherhood, remember: Fans of the Canucks, Flames, Oilers, Leafs, Senators and Canadiens hate, with one exception apiece, the Canucks, Flames, Oilers, Leafs, Senators and Canadiens. Athens never cheered for Sparta, either.

Secondly, we all assume Canadian teams are doomed to wander in the deep snow forever. Yes, we’re at 17 years and counting since the Montreal miracle. But maybe it really is coincidence.

Only nine franchises have won titles since 1993 — the New York Rangers, New Jersey (three times), Colorado née Quebec (twice), Detroit (four times), Dallas, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Anaheim, Pittsburgh and Chicago. That’s means more than two-thirds of the league has failed win a title over that time, which means it is not like everybody but Canadian teams that have a problem. And even then, it’s not a question that has a simple answer, anyway.

“I don’t know,” said Canadiens backup goaltender Alex Auld, whose nine-year career has taken him through Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal, along with five U.S.-based teams. “It’s coincidence, it’s numbers, it’s a lot of things. But maybe there’s something to the pressure. There’s less patience for a full rebuild, maybe. It might add to it.”

He tilted his head, and thought some more.

“I guess the pressure does make it [harder] — there’s just another thing you have to deal with, and the media’s another thing you have to deal with. You know, you can go to the finals in some places and never have to have a day like we had today in the first round. That’s a reality. I guess you’d be naive to think the extra pressure and the extra media attention and the extra fan interest and all those things don’t come into play a little bit. That’s why it’s important to research guys and all that.”

Auld paused again. He tilted his head again.

“But when you look at the fact that you’ve had so many teams win, I think it might just be numbers. Vancouver in ’94, seven games. Calgary [in 2004], seven games. Edmonton [in 2006], seven games. And Ottawa [in 2007] was five. But those three teams all could have won, easily.”

He’s right, of course. The fact that Canada’s two smallest-market teams have reached the Stanley Cup final in the five years since the lockout — the two teams that suffered most acutely in the pre-salary cap era, which helps explain some of the drought in the late 1990s and early 2000s — must mean something. The fact that Montreal reached the conference final in 2010 must mean something. (The fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs have the second-longest playoff drought in the league obviously holds its own special significance.)

The prescription seems simple — don’t succumb to public pressure (see: Carey Price over Jaroslav Halak), and find guys who thrive under the ocean-floor pressure that Canada exerts. Some guys don’t want to deal with the pressure. Find the guys who love it.

“For me it’s exciting,” said Canadiens winger and Toronto native Mike Cammalleri, who came from the Los Angeles Kings of his own volition. “I just felt like I can identify with it. I’m such a fan of the game, and I grew up such a fan of the game — it’s not always easy or pleasant at times, but I like to think that I can identify with those same feelings. I guess I’m just overall appreciative that Canadian fans are what they are, because it makes our game so great.”

“I think it makes you a better player,” said Kelly, who spent six seasons in Ottawa. “You have to show up and play every game, you can’t take the night off. People notice.”

People notice, all right. But one of these years some Canadian team will be smart, get lucky, build the right way, and they will lift the Cup above their heads. Most of the rest of the country will hate them for it, but there you are.

“I guess it has been quite a while now,” conceded Auld, at long last. “But think of the numbers — 18 years, a lot of repeat teams — maybe we’re about to win five straight, you know?”